Burgess on frontline of forestry defence

AUSTRALIA’S security is under threat, but it is our eucalyptus trees that are vulnerable to attack.

Post doctoral researcher Dr Treena Burgess is investigating the spread of diseases that affect eucalypts outside of Australia and assessing the risk of these diseases moving into Australian plantations.

“Eucalyptus trees have been exported and farmed around the world since European settlement and in the exotic environment, eucalypts have been exposed to diseases not present in Australia,” Dr Burgess said.

“Many of these diseases have adapted to eucalypts and now affect the productivity of exotic plantations. “We are aiming to assess the spread of these diseases, and therefore the risk of their transferral to Australia, which would have a devastating impact on plantations.”

“Although Australia has only been farming eucalypts intensely for a couple of decades, the industry has quickly grown to one worth between 1.5 and 2 billion dollars.

“There is a real risk that a disease could enter Australia through importing wood products, packing material or even through the movement of humans around the globe. We also import seeds and germplasm from countries like South Africa which have been farming eucalypts for nearly a century.”

Dr Burgess is focusing on surveying the pathogen populations in Indonesia, China, the Philippines and Thailand over the next three years to establish how the populations are changing and spreading, and assessing the possibilities of transferral to Australian plantations.

“We are also interested in investigating the pathogens’ modes of reproduction and the disease process so we can get a handle on the threat of these diseases and use the information for future selections and breeding,” Dr Burgess said.

This Australian Research Council funded project involves collaboration with the Queensland Forestry Research Institute (QFRI) and researchers in Asia, in particular at the Research Institute for Tropical Forestry (RITF) in Southern China, and the team is working with the Forestry and Agriculture Biotechnology Institute (FABI) in South Africa, where researchers have built up a massive database of diseases affecting eucalypts around the world.